The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-05-10

istics of the Persian servant is his cheer
full way of coming round when
found out. If he sees that some little
theft, some particularly clever piece of
rascality of his, is discovered, he &C.
knowledges the corn with alacrity.
''Gow khordam" q eat dirt). will be
his form of the pater pecarVi, and in
saying which he will throw him
self fiat on the ground. lifting
up his feet in the air in token
of his perfect willingness to submit to
sound thrashing. To trace the origin
of a theft, however. is generally a
pretty difficult matter. The favorite
method of dealing with cases of domes-
tic theft-if the object stolen is worth
the troubles mode of embarrassing
highly characteristic of the Eastern
mind. The moduS operandi is about as
follows: A large. fiat dish, filled with
fine sand or flour, is placed on the
floor of q darkened room. Then the
whole procession of servants passes
through that room, one by one. When
the first one passes through the OPP
posite door the second one steps in,
and so on. Almost invariably the mis-
sing article is found in the dish at the
close of the operation, and restitution
made easy" has carried the day. De-
tectiye tricks are hardly ever played
on the poor. unsuspecting Persian
thief. Occasionally. however, an ex-
ception is made. especially since the
new chief of justice in Teheran, an
Italian nobleman. Count di MontefOrte,
has imported some innovations into
the pastoral simplicity. A ludicrous
case for which he was responsible will
bear the telling. A theft of consider
able proportions had occurred in the
household of amin-ed-dOuleh minister
of the treasury and the eunuchs were
suspected. They, however. denied.
point blank. Then a mollah (priest)
was introduced into the house. after
first receiving his instructions from the
police chief. This venerable person.
age assured the assembled dOmestics
that the culprit would have his hand
palsied the moment he dipped it into
the dish in the adjoining room. Then
the servants all filed through the dark
ened room, being first sOlemnly adj
jursd to touch the dish. The guilty
party was caught. His fear betrayed
him. The dish contained sifted wheat
flour, and everybody's hand bore the
traces of contact with the flour on
emerging from the room except the
negro's. He was at once accused by
the priest and confessed OF course
he attributed the detection to sorcery;
the simple but effective trick had not
been fathomed by this child of nature.
Such heroic measures are. however.
but seldom resOrted to in Persian
households. Ito take and let take" is
there the motto which is not often devil
ated from.
One more peculiar custom connected
with domestic service in vogue in that
country deserves mention. Like the
asylums and sanctuaries of the middle
ages, many Persians who have COM
mitted q crime, incurred the enmitv of
a powerful noble, or made themselves
otherwise very obnoxious, seek service
in the house of mighty protector to
escape the consequences of their do
ings. Thus, on the election of q new
favorite to the rank of sadr azem
(grand vizier) the new-fedged digni-
tary will at once find fpcking under
his banner hundreds of these men. He
will ask them what they want, and
they will simply make reply: Now
kerr mikonam" q am doing you ser
vice), and that will settle il. These
refugees are often men of wealth and
station, and will not ask for nor expect
pay, but will cheerfully run errands.
hold the masters horse, and perform
similar light offices. Nobody will then
interfere with them. The same is true
of those men in the service of the va
rious legations in Persia who have
taken refuge under the dag of another
nation and gladly perform mental SER
vice for its representative on account of
some disagreement or other with their
own government-sucha as the evading
of taxes, deserving from. the army, and
the like. Rebel chiefs and similar in
teresting gentlemen will occasionally
run into a port of this kind. and the !
Persian Government. which can not |
boast of possessing penitentiary and
owns nothing of similar nature ex-
cepting one small Jail in Teheran Gam
bar). which is always overcrowded
with poor wretches accused of high |
treason or other grave political offenses.
and who are unfeelingly left there to
starve or rot, as they please, has no
strong objections to be rid of the less
class of malefactors by this
device. Thus everybody is pleased |